Interim Pastors Staying At Gateway Church While Search Continues
Dallas-based Gateway Church has announced its interim pastors are staying on while the search for an executive pastor continues.
Pastors Max Lucado and Joakim Lundqvist first joined the church as temporary teaching pastors at the church in July 2024 after decades-old child sex abuse allegations became public, The Roys Report previously reported.
They were brought into the church when James Morris, who was slated to take over leadership of the church, resigned. Morris’s decision stemmed from the sexual abuse scandal involving his father, Robert Morris.
Robert Morris, who founded the multi-site megachurch in 2000, resigned in June, after Cindy Clemishire accused him of sexually abusing her for years — starting when she was 12 years old.
The search for the church’s next leader is still ongoing, church officials said in a statement to WFAA.
“Gateway Church is actively searching for a new pastor,” the statement said. “Joakim Lundqvist and Max Lucado will continue to serve in their roles as teaching pastors while Gateway searches for the right candidate to lead us as executive pastor.”
While Gateway Church confirmed this statement to TRR, it remains unclear how long the church anticipates the search for a permanent executive pastor will continue. Gateway church declined to comment further when asked.
Lucado, a bestselling Christian author, works as the teaching pastor at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas in addition to his Gateway Church role.
Swedish pastor Lundqvist previously served as the served as senior pastor of Word of Life Church in Sweden. With more than 30 years of ministry experience, he now serves at both Gateway Church and Bethany Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In a sermon earlier this month, Lundqvist said that Gateway initially asked him to join the team until December 2024.
However, now elders have asked him to stay with the church until June.
“So, Maria and I are actually going to be spending the whole spring with you all until the end of June,” Lundqvist said. “I just want to let you know Gateway family that when the elders asked, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made because we love this house and we sense the presence of God upon this church.”
Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. (Photo via social media)
Bethany Church’s history
Bethany Church, where Lundqvist serves, is where two well-known pastors got their start.
One is disgraced pastor, Ted Haggard, who served as the youth pastor at Bethany in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Haggard’s name splashed across headlines in 2006 when he admitted to paying for a male prostitute and buying methamphetamine, TRR reported.
Then in 2022, the pastor was accused of nearly identical allegations at St. James Church in Colorado Springs.
Additionally, Chris Hodges, one of the founders of the Associations of Related Churches (ARC) served as senior associate pastor at Bethany in the 1990s. ARC has been embroiled in numerous sexual scandals over the years.
Hodges has regularly spoken at Gateway Church Conferences, TRR reported.
Gateway Church’s shifting leadership
Gateway has struggled with fluctuating leadership since Robert Morris’s resignation.
After a third-party investigation into the sex abuse allegations against Morris, Gateway Church removed four of its elders in November. The leaders either knew about allegations of sex abuse by Morris, or knew enough that they should have investigated, TRR reported.
The church also let go of longtime Gateway Spokesman Lawrence Swicegood.
That same month, the church announced to staff that donations have dropped 35% to 40% and staff reductions are looming.
Several current and former church members are currently suing the church for alleged financial fraud, as well.
Around 100,000 people attend Gateway’s dozen locations across Texas each weekend, according to the church’s YouTube page.
“At Gateway, we’re all about people. We’re all about people because God is all about people,” the page writes.
This article has been republished with permission from The Roys Report.
Liz Lykins is a correspondent covering religion news for The Roys Report, WORLD Magazine, and other publications.